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Friday, July 12, 2013

New UC President (political expertise rather than academic)

The LA Times has a report on its website this morning on the new UC president nominee:

Janet Napolitano,
the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona,
is being named as the next president of the University of California
system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a
position usually held by an academic, the Times has learned. Her
appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman
for the first time in its 145-year history. Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC
regents came after a secretive process that insiders said focused on her
early as a high-profile, although untraditional, candidate who has led
large public agencies and shown a strong interest in improving
education...

Napolitano, 55, is no stranger to California colleges since she attended
Santa Clara University and was its first woman valedictorian before
earning her law degree at University of Virginia. Her father was dean of the University of New Mexico
School of Medicine, a family connection that UC regents also liked
since they oversee medical centers. In Arizona, she helped to enact
plans to provide full-day kindergarten and to renovate university
buildings, winning fans among educators... The UC regents are expected to approve her nomination as UC’s 20th
president on Thursday during a meeting in San Francisco. Napolitano is
expected to take up the UC reins some time in September, officials said...

A preliminary comment from yours truly: It appears that the Regents have decided that they needed political expertise on top - not another academic - to deal with the increasing intervention of the governor and legislature.